Toddler abducted

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I wouldn't call that sanctimonious, I'd like to think I have bought my kids up with the minimum of risk to their safety.

............ and I am sure the parents of the toddler would say exactly the same thing.

 

[surrey jim]

I wouldn't call that sanctimonious, I'd like to think I have bought my kids up with the minimum of risk to their safety.

there is a big diffrence between wrapping them in cotton wool, protecting them from everything, and taking risks. diferent people have difrent views on what is acceptable

 

[rool]

............ and I am sure the parents of the toddler would say exactly the same thing.

indeed

 

[surrey jim]

not good marketing for Mark Warner holidays theyre aimed for families

 

[Bozza]

From what I gather, this particular Mark Warner holiday resort offers a creche facility where parents can drop their kids off and go for a meal by themselves, picking the kids up on their return.

The parents have to use one of two particular on-site restaurants to use this facility.

I'm not sure if the tapas restaurant was one of those in question or another one, either on-site or off-site.

In fact I'm not sure why I'm saying any of this anyway. So I'll stop now.

 

[The Wookiee]

From what I gather, this particular Mark Warner holiday resort offers a creche facility where parents can drop their kids off and go for a meal by themselves, picking the kids up on their return.

The parents have to use one of two particular on-site restaurants to use this facility.

I'm not sure if the tapas restaurant was one of those in question or another one, either on-site or off-site.

In fact I'm not sure why I'm saying any of this anyway. So I'll stop now.

http://www.markwarner.co.uk/summer_holidays/portugal/ocean_club/childcare

 

[tedebear]

Well we used to go the New Forest three or four times a year with friends with kids of simlar ages. When the kids were younger we used to keep a close eye on them - over the years though - they got the run the immediate area, then the site, then pretty much the forest. Bad parenting or good parenting allowing them freedom to explore ?

We all make these judgements all the time.

Different scenario, I'd probably do the same eventually in your shoes. But I'm usually in a race paddock. In a split second if Arthur ran out he'd be either seriously injured or killed. I can't take that risk, we love to race our cars, and we love our son, that means that until he's a lot bigger and has more awareness that I will be limited to what I can do when we go away. Thats my choice though.

 

[tedebear]

I guess, as DKM says, people make different judgements. Little kids are always running off and getting lost in shopping centres despite your best efforts to keep them with you. So why don't we all have little kids on reins? The mum in the James Bulger case was only a few steps away yet I'm sure some people thought she wasn't close enough. You have to weigh up the risks of something happening and take a decision. I'm sure that's what the parents did in this case.

I agree, different situations and different parents make different judgements. These holiday places are usually very safe and secure environments. However the evil flip side of that is that (and I hope to god its not) that some pervert will know that there are children in abundance.

I'd not be happy doing what they've done, especially abroad, but I can certainly see why they would.

 

[surrey jim]

From what I gather, this particular Mark Warner holiday resort offers a creche facility where parents can drop their kids off and go for a meal by themselves, picking the kids up on their return.

The parents have to use one of two particular on-site restaurants to use this facility.

I'm not sure if the tapas restaurant was one of those in question or another one, either on-site or off-site.

In fact I'm not sure why I'm saying any of this anyway. So I'll stop now.

im guessing from what has been said on TV that the resturant is only 40 or so yards away from the apartment so the resturant would be onsite.

not that that really helps!

 

[e77]

If someone was that determined they would have found a way to get hold of her.

 

[rospants]

shes been missing for almost 24 hours now. The poor little girl must be terrified, wherever she is

 

[surrey jim]

Anxious wait over 'abducted' girl

Madeleine disappeared while her parents were at a nearby restaurant
Relatives of a three-year-old girl who is feared abducted on a family holiday are flying to the Algarve in Portugal as the search for her continues.
Madeleine McCann's parents, from Leicestershire, were at a restaurant near the Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club in Praia da Luz when she went missing.

Kate and Gerry McCann, who were checking her regularly, found her bed empty at about 2200 GMT on Thursday.

The apartment has been cordoned off and a major search is under way.

Madeleine's parents - both 46-year-old doctors - had been dining in a tapas restaurant a few hundred yards from the apartment and had been checking on the little girl and her younger brother and sister, two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, every half hour.

Fellow holidaymakers, staff from the British travel firm Mark Warner - which has run the resort for two years - and police spent most of the night searching for the toddler.

The door was lying open, the window in the bedroom and the shutters had been jemmied open

Gerry McCann

But the manager of the resort, John Hill, said about 60 staff and guests at the complex had searched until 0430 GMT while police notified border police, Spanish police and airports.

The apartment was sealed off for forensic checks, extra police teams were brought in from Lisbon and sniffer dogs were deployed.

The girl's aunt, Trish Cameron, who lives in Dumbarton near Glasgow, said Mr McCann rang her on Thursday night.

Remembering the conversation, she said her brother had told her: "Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted.

"The door was lying open, the window in the bedroom and the shutters had been jemmied open.

"Nothing had been touched in the apartment, no valuables taken, no passports.

"They think someone must have come in the window and gone out the door with her."

'Distressing time'

Mrs Cameron was due to fly out to the resort from Manchester on Thursday night, along with her mother and Mrs McCann's parents.

Speaking from his home in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, Madeleine's maternal grandfather Brian Healey said they were "worried sick".

"It's a very distressing time," he said.

The toddler's father is a consultant cardiologist at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital.

Doug Skehan, another consultant cardiologist there, said: "The mood in the hospital is one of great concern and we hope that Kate and Gerry will have their daughter back very soon." Kate McCann is a GP at Latham House Medical Practice in Melton Mowbray, where colleagues said they would do everything to support the family.

The McCanns live in Rothley in Leicestershire and are believed to have moved there from nearby Queninborough last summer.

The British Ambassador to Portugal, John Stephen Buck, was travelling to the Algarve on Friday, as was Mark Warner UK Operations Director Craig Mayhew and a counsellor.

Ocean Club manager John Hill said the McCanns remained at the police station in Portimao helping officers piece together what happened.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/6626251.stm

 

[surrey jim]

just had an appeal for her return on the news;
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1264418,00.html



hope she is found safe and well soon

 

[British Bulldog]

Well sometimes you think it is a miracle any of us get to adulthood - there were times in the New Forest (Hollands Wood we used to go to) when we would have panics - but the alcohol kicked in again ................

We got away with it. Sounds like junior bulldog did too - just about. Parenting ain't easy.

If I knew what parenting involved I might've thought twice about it but I would'nt be without them now, My only advice to anybody going to the New Forest is be careful with your kids going near the pony's they can do a lot of damage with a kick.

 

[British Bulldog]

just had an appeal for her return on the news;
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1264418,00.html



hope she is found safe and well soon

Me to fella.

 

[alan partridge]

I don't know this particular resort, but having been on one of these Mark Warner holidays, they are incredibly secure resorts. They are designed for families and the restaurant is usually a building in the middle, like they say a few hundred yards from the apartment. The vast majority of parents leave their children in the apartment in the evenings and take it in turns to check every half an hour or so.

I can understand why, on a precious holiday as a stressed out parent, the chance of having a grown-up meal without having to deal with an over-tired toddler being kept up way beyond their bedtime is so attractive. I'm sure they were checking far more often than you might check a child upstairs in your own house, even if you've got the telly/music on loud downstairs.

A voice of reason amongst the usual wank fest of 'I'd never do that' twats.

From what I read the apartment was visible from where they were eating and they were checking every half an hour. They don't sound like Mr and Mrs Evil to me. Couple of righteous posters on here seem to love a bit of violence at football grounds too. Course there's never any kids at football stadiums are there?

Very sad story, hope she's found soon and with no harm done to her.

 

[cardboard]

Indeed - feels weird. I have a 3 year old daughter and i do not know what i'd do if something like this happened

I hope she is alive and well and they catch the monster that is ruining all these peoples lives

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I guess there are plenty of parents about who would do the same in the circumstances, ie leave the kids in the apartment, checking them every so often.

I suppose it's a question of weighing up the risk- after all, what are the odds of something like this happening? The one local pervert happening to find the one resort and the one apartment in which the kids were all alone? And I doubt the parents need any telling at this moment in time, their feelings can't even be imagined. I have no kids, so I can't really say what I'd do.

But I would ask this question- maybe those of you on here with children can answer- let's say you did go out for dinner, and you arranged for a mate to babysit your kids. What would you then say if you got home at the end of the evening and found out that, rather than sitting in your house, the babysitter had gone out to a restaurant 100 yards down the road, returning to your house only hourly to check on your kids? Is that a reasonable risk?

 

[British Bulldog]

I guess there are plenty of parents about who would do the same in the circumstances, ie leave the kids in the apartment, checking them every so often.

I suppose it's a question of weighing up the risk- after all, what are the odds of something like this happening? The one local pervert happening to find the one resort and the one apartment in which the kids were all alone? And I doubt the parents need any telling at this moment in time, their feelings can't even be imagined. I have no kids, so I can't really say what I'd do.

As a parent Edna you can only prey that the choices you make are the right ones for your kids but there's still an element of luck involved. I've got 3 sisters who are all good bloody good mothers but one by one i've seen bad luck take over, My eldest sister lost her son in a car crash aged 18, My next eldest sister's son nearly drowned in a swimming pool and had to be put on a life support machine and was flown to guys hospital, And my baby sisters boy was knocked down by a car on his way home from school and spent 6 weeks in hospital recovering. Every one of my sisters allways took decisions for the right reason but everyone of them would now like to turn the clock back.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

As usual, when anything happens to Brits abroad, the first thing the Daily Mail do is complain that the local (ie foreign) police aren't doing enough.

Yet anything happens in this country and they complain that our police overreact....

*bangs head against wall*